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^ 423 
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TTER or T. L. CLINGMAN. 



IE OF Represen-tatives, } 
March 22, 1850. 5 

To the Editors of the Republic : 

Gentlemen : Your Republic of Wednesday con- 
tains a speech purporting- to have been delivered by 
my colleague (Mr. Stanly) in the House of Rep- 
resentatives, IMarch 6tb, 1S50. 

On looking- over it I find that it includes some 
twenty or tiiirty extracts from speeches of mine de- 
livered at different times within the last half a dozen 
years. On the day of its delivery, I think, I heard 
all that was said by my colleagae. He commenced 
by saying, that as the day was a rainy one he would 
advise gentlemen to go to some more comfortable 

Elace, as he did not intend to speak for tho House, 
ut for his constituents. In the course of his re- 
marks he stated that he had some extracts from 
my speeches which he should print, but which he 
did not intend to read, lest his hour should expire 
before he had concluded. Just before the close of 
his hour, however, having as 1 supposed gone over 
the ground of his speech, he began to read an ex- 
tract from one of my speeches, but after going 
through a few sentences, he declared that, as his 
hour was nearly over, he would print it and some 
Others. Until the speech appeared in your paper, 
it was impossible either for me, or for the members 
generally, to know what particular portions or even 
what speeches he intended to read from. In fact, 
many of his quotations refer to points to which he 
made no allusion whatever in the course of his 
speech. It v.-ill not, I presume, be expected by any 
body that I should attempt a reply on the floor of the 
House ; I could do so with no appearance of parlia- 
mentary propriety. Not only has so long a time 
elapsed that the matters really uttered by him have 
passed out of the minds of members, but I would 
be compelled to ask the House to give me its car 
fi when replying to things not spoken there, wholly 
new to the members generally, and having no re- 
ference whatever to the practical business of legis- 
lation. 

If this matter he has had printed merited a reply, 
it would doubtless be held sufficient for me, with 
your permission, to publish an answer in the same 
paper he has selected as the medium of his com- 
munication to the country. On looking over the 
speech, however, candor compels me to admit, that 
it does not, in my judgment, contain any thing of 
sufficient moment to justify me in asking the use of 
your columns for a reply to it. In sc-lcctmg parts 
of paragraphs, and sometimes parts of sentences, 
my colleague has exhibited some ingenuity, and 
seems to have exercised much caution to avoid do- 
ing me justice, and to mislead his readers in rela- 
tion to my opinions as formerly expressed. As far 
as I have observed the custom that has prevailed 
with members of tlie House since the adoption of 
the hour rule, though they sometimes enlarge the 
argumentative parts of speeches in the report, they 
studiously avoid printing any thing that refers to 
the opinions or declarations of members, unless it 
has been in fact uttered on the floor. By that 
means an opportunity is afforded gentlemen to ex- 
plain or defend themselves, when it seems neces- 
sary- My colleague has thought proper to take a 
different course. As far as I am concerned, I have 
no objection whatever to his bringing into review 
my public acts and declarations in the manner 
chosen by him. It would, in my judgment, how- 
ever, have been more appropriate for him to have 
aissumed ostensibly, as he appears to have done 
really, the character of a pamphleteer. He seems 
anxious to make it appear that there is a discrep- 
ancy or inconsistency in my opinions on political 
points, as expressed at different times. Though I en- 
; tertain no doubt but that, by making more copious 
' extracts from my speeches than hehas done, I should 



be able to show that my opinions, as expressed, have 
not materially varied, yet I cannot suppose that 
the public generally feel an intcre-'t in the subject, 
since the establishing of my consistency would not 
in any manner affect the progress of legislative 
business. My own constituents have generally 
seen my speeches at length, and will not, therefore, 
I apprehend, require any explanation from me. 
But what advantage he can derive from mislead- 
ing his own constituents, I cannot imagine. Should 
any thing in the progress of events in the future 
render it proper that I should offer explanation, I 
.shall enter on it with entire confidence in my abil- 
ity to make a successful defence. 

Having disposed of the speech of my colleague, 
I will now, gentlemen, as I have found it neces- 
sary to re.sort to 3'our columns, take this occasion 
to advert to certain other points of discussion. You 
iiave heretofore, while condemning ultra politi- 
cians, thought proper, in several of your editorials, 
to include me by name in that class. 

But who are to be regarded as ultra politicians 
with reference to the great issue pending ? The 
most ultra on the southern side of the question that 
I know of, claim that slavery shall go into all the 
territories of the United States which are common 
property, until it shall be excluded by State con- 
stitutions. 

An ultra northern man is he who claims that 
slavery shall be excluded from all the territory. 
If one of these views be more ultra than the other, 
it must be the northern one. because., even if the 
southern view were adopted in practice, northern 
men might occupy any part of the territory with- 
out being deprived of any legal advantage which 
they po.s3ess in their own States, and would have 
tiie further piivilege, if they chose to exercise it, 
of holding slaves. If, however, slavery should be 
excluded, the southerner would find himself de- 
prived of certain advantages which he would en- 
joy at home. 

Those men who, standing between these two 
opposite extremes, are willing that there should be 
an equitable division of the territory, may well 
claim to be the moderate men. In this class will 
fall, as far as I know, all the southern members of 
Congress, as well as the entire mass of the southern 
people. Whatever may be their views as to the 
powers of this Government over the territory, they 
are willing, in fact, that there shall be a fair divi- 
sion. 

The real question at issue, therefore, is not whether 
t!ie South shall have all the territory, or even more 
than the North, but whether ic shall be permitted 
to possess a?ii/ ;!«/■< of it. For example, it the Mis- 
souri line of 36° 30' were extended to the Pacific, 
then of all the common property, viz: the territory 
not included within any of the States, only one- 
sixth part lies south of that line; yet when, on be- 
half of the South, we insist that this comparatively 
small part shall be left open to us, our claim is de- 
nounced as a monstrous pretension, as insufierable 
southern arrogance. 

With just as much fairness might the South be 
excluded from any share of the public money and 
other public property. Of the sum annually 
paid out of the public treasury, a small part com- 
paratively is expended in the slaveholding States. 
This portion of the disbursement the North mi^-ht 
insist on stopping with as good a grace as they can 
support their present claim. To prove that if that 
sum were also expended in the free States it 
would be productive of greater good, they might 
use just the same arguments that they now resort 
to. While the principle would be the same, too, in 
each case, it is clear that the ultimate mischief to 
the South in the future will be much greater from 
the exclusion from all the territory, than could 



Gideon &. Co., Printers. 






lesutt from dciiriving us of any share in the public 
jiioney. 

If these new principles, winch seem to have been 
adopted by most of the northern politicians, are to 
prevail; if this Government is to acquire territory 
by conquest or by purchase, and tlic southern 
States are to be required to furnisii their full pro- 
portion of men and money, and then the fruits of 
victory are to be appropriated exclusively by the 
North, it is idle to suppose that the Soutli will go 
into any such partnership. 

The southern people have been free too long to 
consent thus to become the vassals of the North. As 
their object is to obtain a rcc6gnition of their right 
to participate fairly in the benefits of the national 
territory, their opposition is not limited to a particu- 
lar mode of exclusion, as the Wilmot proviso. It 
extends to all such action on the pait of the Federal 
Government as places it always against thon and 
their institutions. If, for example, when territory is 
acquired in which slavery legally exists, as was the 
case with the Louisiana Territory, then the Govern- 
ment is directly to interfere, and by an act of Con- 
gress to abolish slavery, as it did in more than 
three- fourths of that Territory; and when, on the 
other hand, an acquisition of a ditferenl character 
is made, it is intentionally .so to manage as to ex- 
clude slaveholders from ail parts of it; it is obvious 
that the character of our political system would be 
essentially changed; so that the Government, in- 
stead of being that of the whole Union, would have 
been converted into a mere machine, for the ad- 
vancement of the northern section. 

By one mode of proceeding, for example, we are 
asked to admit California as a State forthwith. But 
New Mexico and Deseret are in just as much want 
of legislative aid, and their inhabitants are just as 
urg-ent in their demands fcii- our action in their 
cases. Inasmuch, therefore, as the inhabitants of 
all these Territories are in the same situation, and 
have all presented us forms of government, why 
discriminate between them ? Why grant the re- 
quest of one set and refuse it to the others.^ Is it 
because California lias made a constitution exclud- 
ing slavery, while the other two Ten itories have 
not imposed any such restriction in their forms of 
government? Is it for this reason, I say. that we 
are to be required to admit her at once.' If the ma- 
jority from the North, instead of disposing of all 
these Territories at this time, they being equally 
entitled to our consideration, insist on pushing- 
through California alone, is not the conclusion irre- 
sistible that it is their object merely to strengthen 
their hands, thus to enable them hereafter to se- 
cure the other portions of the IMcxican territory by 
one mode or another .'' 

Are southern men to bo required to stultify them- 
selves so far before the country as to affect to be 
blind to this state of things .^ Could we settle the 
whole Territorial question on equitable terms, we 
miglit be justified in waiving the strong objections 
to tne manner in which this state of things was 
produced in California. Tlic northern tiiembers 
have not only, by decisive majoiities, from time to 
time repeatedly during the last thi-ce years, passed 
the Wilmot proviso througii the House of Repre- 
sentatives, but even at the last session, when Mr. 
Preston's bill to allow the people of that country 
to form a con.stitution was under consideration, 
they appended that proviso to it, and thus obliged 
its friends to abandon it. The people of the 
country there, being thus persuaded that their 
only chance to get into the Union was by the ex- 
clusion of slavery, very naturally incorporated the 
proviso into their con3litutii)n. 

The course which you have to some extent pur- 
sued, however patriotic may bciyour motives, and 
more especially that of the National Intelligencer, 
seems to me calculated only to produce mischief. 
I refer to the attempt to underrate the condition of 
feeling at the South by extracts carefully culled 
from southern papers, letters, &c. No impres- 



sion is thereby made on the South. The subject 
being one which every body there fully under- 
stands, opinions cannot be shaken in relation to it. 
Those persons who reason knoiv that it is wrong 
that the South should not be permitted, with her 
institutions, to occupy any part of the common ter- 
ritory; such as are not accustomed to reason feel 
that the exclusion is a gross outrage on their rights. 
When any man, how high soever may be his posi- 
tion, declaims against the extension of slavery into 
any part of the territory, his words produce no 
more effect on the settled judgment of the South, 
than the dashing of the waves against the base of a 
mountain of solid granite. The only effect of these 
jjublications is to dec-eive the North. What possi- 
ble good can result from keeping the people of that 
section in profound ignorance oF the condition of 
things in the South? "is it wise thus to mislead the 
people there? Why not let them know that their 
movements may bring them into danger? Is it re- 
garded as a wis'e stroke of policy, in a military 
commander, to conceal from his own troops the 
danger, until he can bring them up suddenly upon 
a masked battery? If the Union be in peril, noth- 
ing seems to me better calculated to increase the 
danger than such a course as this. 

Even if these quotations should be fairly made 
from the particular papers selected, it must be re- 
membered that they constitute a small portion of 
those published in the southern States. It may be 
remarked, too, that a number of iliesc papers are 
published by northern men, some of whom retain 
tlieir original sectional feelings, and are adroitly 
endeavoring to advance the anti-slavery views of 
the North. Other journals, partly from a party feel- 
ing of opposition to movements which found in the 
first instance more favor in the Democratic papers, 
and partly out of deference to the tone of the cen- 
tral press in this city, supposed to be in accordance 
with the views of the Administration, have echoed 
back what they supposed would be acceptable here. 
As, however, it has become manifest that they 
were unintentionally aiding the anti-slavery move- 
ment of the North, they have gradually been tak- 
ing a better view of things; aad I have no doubt 
but that, ultimately, all such of them as are gov- 
erned by patriotic considerations will assume the 
proper position. The North is also misled by the 
tact that certain southern men seem willing to 
sacrifice the general national interests of the tJnion, 
by abandoning the i-ights of their own section and 
adopting the narrow sectional claims of the North. 
Whether these persons are governed by misguided 
patriotism, or arc merely seeking northern support 
for their personal advancement, it cannot be ex- 
pected that they should be sustained by those whose 
rights they are willing to surrender. If they have 
not already lost their influence, they will inevita- 
bly do so when their position is understood and the 
feeling has become intense. The effect of these 
things, however, can be productive of nothing but 
mischief, by misleading the North. Had the real 
state of feeling in the old thirteen colonies been 
understood in England six months before the decla- 
ration of independence, our revolution would never 
have occurred ; but the British Parliament and 
people were cheated and deceived by the ministers 
ancttheir organs, whj declaied, from time to time, 
that the complaint on this side of the Atlantic came 
only from a few ambitious and factious men, who 
were making- a noise and exciting sedition to give 
themselves consequence; and that the great body 
of the inhabitants of the colonics were loyal, con- 
tented and quiet, and so attached' to the general 
government and the union with Great Britain, that 
they would submit to whatever laws the Parliament 
might pass. With this example so familiar to 
American minds, is it not strange that similar delu- 
sion should now prevail? 

But I will now advert to another point, viz: the 
means proposed to resist the improper action of the 
northern majority. I have expressed the opinion 



/ 



\ 



thai, under our oblig'ations to support the Constitu- 
tion of the United States, all means consistent with 
its provisions should be exhausted before there 
should be a recommendation to appeal to our righls 
above it. And I have hence advised that, under 
all the circumstances, if an equitable adjustment 
cannot be obtained of the territorial question, 
then we ought to refuse to pass any appropriation 
bills for the support of the Government. The idea 
of refusing- supplies is not of American orio-in. It 
has been claimed in England as the undoubted 
right of the parliament to refuse, at its own discre- 
tion, supplies to the executive. This right, too, has 
in practice from time to time been exercised to pro- 
tect the rights and liberties of the people of Enar- 
land, and has even been the means of extorting au- 
ditional privileges from the British monarchs.^ 

Will it be pretended that the representatives of 
American freemen ought to do less to protect the 
essential rights, and liberties even, of the people 
whom they represent? In England, however, nothing 
less than a majority of the representatives can do 
this; but under our Constitution the minority may 
effect the same object. Nobody will, I apprehend, 
affirm that the same act, per se, which would be 
proper when done by the majority, would be wrong 
if effected by the minority, acting in the manner 
provided by the Constitution itself. The act of the 
majority is only effective because the Constitution 
so declares; but this same Constitution provides 
also that certain acts, when done by the minority, 
shall be effective. This difference between our 
Constitution and that of Great Britain operates in 
behalf of liberty, and to protect the rights of the 
minority. It is in some respects like the presiden- 
tial veto, which every bodj^ admits ought in certain 
cases to be exercised, though it does have the effect 
of defeating the action of the majority. The Con- 
stitution oi the United States, under which alone 
Congress acts, provides that one-fifth of the mem- 
bers present may demand that the ayes and noes 
shall be taken on any question which may be sub- 
mitted by the Speaker. 

It is also provided that each House may adopt its 
own rules of order. Such rules have been adopted 
already by the House of Representatives, and are, 
until modified or changed by the House itself, as 
much binding- on the Speaker and every member 
as any constitutional provision whatever. In ac- 
cordance with these rules, certain motions may be 
made, and the ayes and noes taken from time to 
time. Under the Constitution and these rules, one- 
fifth of those members present have undoubtedly 
the power to prevent the passage of laws, and to 
prevent also the adoption of any motions for a 
change of the old rules of the House. Unquestion- 
ably this is a power in the hands of the minority 
which might be abused; so, however, might any 
other power granted by the Constitution, whether 
given to the majority, the minority, or to a single 
mdividual, as the president, judge, or other officer. 
If the minority, ibr mere factious or slight pur- 
poses, were thus to impede legislation, this would, 
undoubtedly, be a great abuse; but if that minority 
■were, on the other hand, to resort to this system 
only temporarily, and as a matter of defence 
against a well-settled and gross system of injustice 
and tyranny on the part of the majority, then 
their conduct would not only be no abuse of its 
powers, but would, in fact, be a most praise- 
worthy and patriotic action for the protection of 
the essential rights of their constituents. No citi- 
zen has a right to strike another person; but if one 
is assailed and beaten, then he is justified in strik- 
ing the assailant until he compels him to desist 
from his attack. 

Since this mode of resistance was suggested, it 
seems to have been received with much favor by 
Southern men. From many evidences within my 
reach, 1 select the following passage from a letter 
to me, which seems to present fairly the view taken 
in the South, so far as I am able to understand it. 



The writer is not only one whose opinion will have 
as much weig-ht as that of any one in North Caroli- 
na, from his standing and talents, but is entitled to 
the more consideration from the fact that, during a 
service of many years in Congress, he was not less 
distinguished for his moderation and conservative 
views than for the firmness and ability with which 
he maintained them. As the letter from which I 
make the extract was a private one, I do not give 
the name of the writer, much as I might, by so do- 
ing, strengthen the judicious statement of the case 
made by him. He says: 

" I approve of your position to resist the passage 
of the appropriation bills until the slavery question 
is finally settled. This is a mucli better and more 
effectual plan than for southern members to leave 
their seats, which I have seen proposed in some 
quarters. Should the southern members merely 
leave their seats and return home, it will produce 
no result; the North will pocket the public money 
and laugh at them. The matter can be settled no- 
where but upon the floor of Congress, except by a 
dissolution of the Union, which ngbody desires. If 
fifty of our southern members would lay aside all 
other party tics and act firmly and openly together, 
they can force the North to do what isright, and 
what she ought to do without hesitation. Resist all 
bills for the support of Go\ernment until this sub- 
ject is finally and satisfactorily settled, particularly 
the annual appropriation, the army and navy bills. 
Let it be distinctly understood that you will oppose 
these measures by every parliamentary tactic in your 
power, and that you cannot be bought off, forced off, 
nor coaxed off, until justice is done the South; and, 
in my judgment, success is inevitable. At all 
events, if I were there I would try the experiment 
until March 4, 1S51. 

" The South Tias no direct interest in the passage 
of these bills, and if the object of refusing them is 
understood, I have no doubt it will be cordially ap- 
proved. Should Congress adjourn without passing- 
these bills, there will very soon be organized a pow- 
erful party in the North to putdown Free-soilism and 
Abolitionism both. I do not tliink we should be 
plagued with either again for some time. In a 
movement of this kind every thing depends on its 
being carried out by firm, honest,^and true men, 
and I hope enough such may be found in Consrreas 
to undertake it, in spite of all the clamor it will raise 
in the North and among those who live by the Gov- 
ernment. It is a harsh measure, but in my opinion 
it is the only one left to save the Union and protect 
the South. Desperate diseases require desperate 
remedies." 

Should this means of resistance be adopted by 
the southern members, there would be, I have no 
doubt, excitement at first and anger in the North. 
To allay it, hov^ever, if they are consistent and sin- 
cere in their expressions of devotion to the consti- 
tution and laws, it would only be necessary for us to 
remind them of their own doctrine. If we com- 
plain of the threatened action of the majority, they 
advise us to refer the matter to the Supreme Court 
of the United States, which, they say, is the great 
constitutional arbiter whose decisions all good citi- 
zens who love law and order must submit to. If 
they complained of this action of the minority, we, 
of course should recommend them to apply for re- 
dress to the Supreme Court. Should that august 
tribunal decide, for example, that one-fifth of 
the members present had not the right to de- 
mand the ayes and noes, then it would doubtless 
furnish to the complainants iuch remedial process 
as the Constitution of the United States and the 
laws provide in such cases. Should northern gentle- 
men be so inconsistent as to decline to await the ef- 
fect of this slow process, then they would probably 
attempt to change the existii^ rules of the House. 
But as these rules have been med and approved by 
the American Congress for many years, they are 
as much reverenced in certain quarters as were the 
laws of the Medes and Persians in their day . In 



other words, southern men, seeing- how our coun- 
try has prospered under these rules, may not choose 
to have thcnl changed in any respect, and may re- 
sort to the same nii^ans to prevent a change as those 
above indicated. Should the majority in that con- 
ting^ency, as it has been threatened they will do, 
attempt to substitute their own rules, arbitrarily 
adopted, and to displace the existing Speaker be- 
cause of his fidelity to the Constitution, then their 
conduct, being unlawful, forcible, and revolution- 
ary, would juritify and require a forcible action on 
the part of the friends of the Constitution to resist 
their attempts. It would thus turn out^that the 
northern members, having in the first place been 
sfuilty of a tyrannical abuse of their powers under 
the Constitution, and finding that that instrument 
contained a provision for the protection of the mi- 
nority, whose rights they had sought to trample 
on; this majority, I say, finding that they were 
baulked in their efforts by the Constitution itself, 
woidd a second time put themselves in the wrong, 
by an appeal to force. In such a case we, who 
might use the means necessary to defeat this revo- 
lutionary movement, would be standing in defence 
of the Constitution and laws. Feeling the force of 
as high obligations as could possibly rest on a hu- 
man being, I cannot doubt but that in this contin- 
gency southern men will do their duty without re- 
gard to any personal peril that may be incurred. 

Onf purpose of such a movement as this would 
be to teach the North that, under the powers grant- 
ed in the Constitution both to majorities and minor- 
ities, great mischief in practice might be caused. 
An appeal would thus be made in the most solemn 
manner to the good sense and right feeling of the 
masses of the people there, and they might then 
decide whether or not they were willing to carry 
on our political system as we have heretofore done. 

Tlie time when we ought to resort to this mode 
of action, I hold, should be after a clear demonstra- 
tion that the majority, by an arbitrary exercise of 
their power, intend to disregard the constitutional 
and natural rights of the southern portion of the 
Confederacy. When this shall be made manifest — 
when we are brought to see tliat the powers of this 
central government are to be used against our peo- 
ple — that instead of being their government, it is to 
them a foreign and hostile government — then it is 
our duty to withdraw all support from it as far as 
our powers will enable us to do. Northern gentle- 
men, however, tell us that it would be more manly, 
and more becoming a high-minded and chivalrous 
people, to let legislation take its course, and resort 
to revolutionary remedies. Others of them place 
great reliance on the federal army and navy, and 
say that without any trouble to the North they will, 
by blockading southern ports and sending troops 
where they are needed, soon bring the South into 
submission to- such laws as they may choose to 
pass. I have no doubt but that they are perfectly 
•willing, as they say, to vote all the money in the 
treasury to have their acts executed. 

But, I tell th^^se gentlemen frankly, that how- 
ever willing i might be in matters that con- 
cerned myself alone, to make concession when 
there is an appeal to my magnanimity, I do 
not feel at liberty thus to act when the rights 
of others arc at stake. I will not, if I have the 
power to prevent it, needlessly jeopardize those 
whom I represent. If there is to bo a colli- 
sion, I do not wish the sword of Brennus thrown 
into the scale against my section. If there is to be 
a struggle, in any event, between the South and 
the North, I desire that this, the common Govern 
ment, may stand as a neutral. If I l)ave power, I 
will, in that event, put this Government under 
bonds to keep the peace. As in that contest I 
know that the South will have the right on her 
side, I am not willing that the Federal army and 
navy shall be used against her. After the appro- 
priations for the current year are expended, the 



President will have no more power to use the 
money in the treasury without an appropriation by 
law than any other person would have. 

Whether southern members will take the step 
indicated, I shall not assume to say in advance, 
nor even to assert that they have the political, 
moral, and personal courage thus to defend their 
own section, should their judgment approve the 
course. These things the public must decide for 
itself, from such evidence as it has from time to 
time of southern feeling and southern action. 
Should this remedy be adopted, it must be tempo- 
rary in its effects, and coulcl hardly be expected to 
prove available after the fourth of March next. 
Then, and perhaps sooner, the southern people, 
seeing that their representatives could no longer, 
by any exertion, protect them, would be compelled 
to rely on their own efTorts. 

There is at this time less manifestation of excite- 
ment in the southern States than was exhibited a 
little while since. But no one ought to be deceived as 
to the real cause of this comparative quiet. Ttiis 
state of things is in no wise attributable to eulogies 
on the Union, nor to denunciation of southern move- 
ments. 

The people of the southern States suppose they 
have seen indications sufficient to induce them to 
hope that there may be an equitable adjustment of 
the question at issue. Nothing has contributed 
more to this than the rejection, by the House of Re- 
presentatives, of the resolutions of Messrs. Root 
and GiDDiNGS, embodying the principle of the Wil- 
inot proviso. Tliroughout the South, generally, 
this has been regarded as an indication of a return- 
ing sense of justice in the minds of the majority. 
Other movements, since made here, contributed to 
the same result. The liberal views of certain north- 
ern gentlemen have operated in the same direction. 
A great impression has been made, on the southern 
mind especially, by the able, manly, and national 
speech of Mr. Webster; showing, as he did, that 
he had the statesmanlike sagacity to understand 
the real condition of the country, and the courage 
to meet the crisis. Avowing- his readiness to do 
justice to all sections of the Union, according to 
the letter and spirit of the Constitution, he has 
by that effort contributed, in a most eminent de- 
gree, to raise the hope that the liberal and just men 
of the North would so far sustain him as in the end 
to lead to a fair adjustment of the ilitliculty. But 
should such not be the event — should the southern 
people find that they have been deceived — there will 
be a renewal, with redoubled energy, of all the for- 
mer manifestations of excitement. 

N<j where among them fs there to be found that 
spirit of slavish submission to wrong, which it has 
been sought to inculcate from certain quarters. The 
only question on which they are divided is, wheliier 
they 1. :;ht, in (iu; condition of things just now, to 
speak, in. 1 act. Tliough silent, they are resolute. 
The t! i-ling of determination is daily spreading and 
extending itself in all directions. The instant it 
appears necessary for them to act they will move 
forward like a torrent that, after being obstructed 
for a time, has with gathered strength broken down 
all that barred its way. I trust, then, that those 
who have the power in their hands will at once de- 
cide to give us an equitable settlement. There is 
danger in delay, since each month that passes by 
leaves a wider gap between the two sections. For 
myself, while here as a member, I will use my offi- 
cial .'tation to preserve as far as I can the Con- 
stitution intactin its letter and spirit, and to protect, 
if possible, from the threatened wrong, those whom I 
have the honor in part to represent. Failing in 
this, I shall be found with the people of the South 
in whatever movements they may find necessary 
to guard their safety and honor. 

Respectfully yours, 

T. L. CT.TNOMAiV 

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



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011 898 088 8 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



011 898 088 8 9 



HOLLINGER 
pH 8.5 

MILL RUN F3-1343 



